On work and friendships
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Being here for four months now at the Siler Lab is not all fun: I am learning many exciting and new things at work. I managed to make very good progress on the things I needed to get done (writing papers and learning new skillsets). It is a great experience for me to be able to do all these things, and that my colleagues here are all very nice and we are helpful to each other. It was also so much fun to have spent great times with my colleagues’ families at special occasions.
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- Tess took a picture of Greg while they were at work at SNMONH herpetology collections.
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- Tess at work?
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- That is one cool map!
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- Stells and her awesome Frozen birthday cake made by her daddy.
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- Kids at Stells 4th birthday party.
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- Birthday celebration with awesome people of the Siler Lab.
Other than fun at work, it is a great experience for me to be with my very nice European flat mates. I have had great memories with my Hungarian flat mate Zsanett Kopeckso (Jah-net Koh-petch-koh) who was a good travel buddy and an instant best friend. Our travel memories always reminded me of the movie, “Planes, trains and automobiles”. We have traveled together to three different states (NY, Washington D.C. and Kansas!). We took the plane to NYC and explored the five boroughs of the city by taking the subway! We then took the bus to explore Washington D.C. Our most memorable experience in D.C. was, exploring D.C. armed with only a map. We just walked around, starting at the Union Station-Hotel-Union Station. Our trip to Kansas was also very memorable as I got the chance to visit old friends, and it was Zsanett’s first time to interact with a big crowd of happy Filipinos.
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- At the turtle pond in Central Park, NYC.
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- subway!
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- It looks CHILE. Zsanett and Tess at Flushing Meadows, NYC.
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- At last we METs!
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- Four Freedoms Park.
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- Wall Street.
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- Brooklyn Bridge.
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- Famous Statue of Liberty.
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- Times Square fun with Zsanett.
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- At M&M’s on Times Square, NYC!
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- Yankees Stadium.
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- AMNH!
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- Just got out of the train to visit AMNH.
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- Corned beef sandwich at Katz.
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- Zsanett and Tess at Carnegie Deli in NYC. Had pastrami and strawberry cheesecake!
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- Zsanett with Filipinas.
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- Zsanett, Tess and Ligia in Lawrence, Kansas.
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- Rosa, Zsanett, Ligia and Tess at the Peterson’s before Thanksgiving 2014.
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- Thanksgiving lunch with Ligia. I stayed at her place when I first came to the US in 2009.
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- Zsanett outside KU Natural History Museum.
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- Tess.
Aside from all the fun stuff that we do together, I also had the chance to make friends with Zsanett’s American side of the family. Her uncle Dr. Joe Ferretti of OU-HSC and his wife Martha have both been very kind to me. They would take us both to lunches or dinners every weekend and check on us to be sure we are safe and doing well together.
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- Dr. Joe and Martha Ferretti with Zsanett.
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- It was a fake candle.
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- Oklahoma city lights at VAST at Devon Tower.
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- At Devon Tower-tallest building in OKC.
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- OKC.
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- Tess, Zsanett and Martha.
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- At OU-OSU football game!
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- It was very cold, but was a lot of fun! OU-OSU football game.
Nearing the end of my five-month fellowship here at the Siler Lab, I am still pumped-up with interesting things to work on, which all will be very useful for me at work back home at Urios. Zsanett is now in Hungary (we still e-mail!) working on her huge dataset for her dissertation project on karst water. Now, I live with a Greek who is a civil engineer and new German flatmate who is an atomic physicist. We have very interesting discussions at our apartment, but our times are best shared over great food from three different countries!
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- Last dinner with Zsanett at our favorite restaurant in Norman (The Blackbird). We had our favorite peaches and honey.
Missed my earlier blogs? Check out the start of the series here.
See also blog #5.